The Gingerbread Gallery
Happy New Year, everyone!
This year I had the opportunity to learn how to make my first “Gingerbread Art Gallery”. I knew my daughter Heather had experience in building gingerbread houses so I invited her teach me how to make one.
A fun 10 hours later and the gingerbread convection came to life! The ingredients are tasty with the roof being made from fruit rollups, the floor is gingerbread like the rest of the house, the icicles are icing. The snowman is made of solid chocolate and was given to us by a friend. Yes, we’ll be eating that one soon!
The shrubs and trees are all sprigs of evergreen taken from a wreath another friend gave to us. If you look closely in the second photo below, you can get a glimpse of the ‘paintings’ hanging on the walls; these are actually my magnets, which we baked into the gingerbread shell. (Magnets are available from our gift shop.)
The path is made from mocha brickle, and the gallery sits on a base that is covered in icing. To complete this Christmas vignette, we sprinkled coconut flakes on the ground and roof, and added Christmas tree lights to the interior, with two that poke through the wall, lighting up the sign. The goal was to create a ‘sustainable house’, in the sense of being able to eat or re-use all parts of it.
We did have a few unnerving moments when constructing the gallery. The roof was determined to slide off, so Rich helped us out by putting a few wooden skewers up under the eaves while the icing set. That did the trick!
The beautiful red tulips (in the top photo) were a gift from another friend. Thanks to all for your contributions in making this holiday treat.
We may not have snow in Orange County, but we were able to bring some traditional New England festivity to the holiday with this gingerbread house. And just about the time the other holiday treats are eaten, we’ll have this house to nibble on. Thanks for stopping by!
A Closer Look